or am i naive to think that the RAC are a bunch of fuckers who are going to struggle to explain this

[YoniMatopoeia]

So.

This year has been shit. My in laws are calling it the year of death. The weekend was hard - trying to clear out my dead uncles house.

Sunday. We set off home, and should have been home by 9.30 ish. 20 minutes away the water tank on the car split, so it overheated and we had to stop.

9.30 - We called the RAC, told them that we are by the side of the road with a 13 year old and a 6 year old.

RAC say someone should be with us in about an hour, and they will call us before then.

10.30 we call back - the RAC say that someone will be in touch shortly

10.48 - we call the RAC again. While on the phone to the RAC the rescue truck firm call, and say that they should have someone with us within 60 minutes. DH asks them when they got the instruction from RAC to come collect us, they say 3 minutes ago

11.25 - rescue arrives

11.40 - car is on rescue truck

12:15 - dropped off at home (my children are even more grumpy and tired than initially anticipated)

So the fuckers at the RAC, apparently, did not bother to do anything about us for an hour and a quarter, on a Sunday night, with 2 kids, on the side of the road.

DH has called them today to complain, they say that somebody will call us back within 5 days. I can't wait to see what they say. Though given their track record so far, the reply will probably take 15 days.

We are cancelling, and we have been members for 15 years.

This is NOT the first time that we have been let down by them.

People say that you should expect to wait but to be honest as a private company you shouldn't have to wait 2 hours on the side of the road for someone to get to you - if they can't get someone to you in a reasonable timescale then it just goes to show they aren't providing enough patrols so i think complaining about wait times is perfectly valid.

Bugger... didn't realise it was a zombie!!

Argh another one? Why do people keep doing this???

Bastard Zombies!

YY to "bastard zombies".
There have been loads resurrected this past couple of days. No idea why MN doesn't do what other message boards do and either lock or even delete the fuckers after a set amount of time.
Oh well hopefully the OP has arrived home by now.

Some say OP is still there, stuck by the road, waiting for the RAC....
Others say the RAC sorted it and everyone got home eventually....
All we know is that this thread is fucking years old.....

Where on Earth do you live that has a Taxi firm with only one car?!

This morning at 11.30 I heard voices outside my house I live in the country and other than when postman or someone's form of delivery or someone visiting me that's odd.. looking out the window I see a car being pushed off the road into end of my driveway by a young mother , with who turned out to be her 12 year old daughter..
I popped outside to offer a hand getting car off the road or anything else I could do .. all appeared fine other than the car .. lady was member of the RAC daughter had friends nearby and to save boredom setting in for the child phone call was made to collect the girl to go around a friend's house to watch DVDs etc..
Then RAC was called the report was something like this . Car engine lost power cut out freewheeled to a stop, car just off the road no emediate crash risk, one car occupant female aged @ 30 ( if I've guessed incorrect and you are reading this I'm sorry ) . Anyhow this call placed 11.45 am . Estermated response time @ 50 to 90 minutes. It was a hot day offered the lady a drink whilst awaiting mechanic. 12.30 RAC call back new estermated time @50 to 90 minutes ( sounded a tad familiar to me ) 1.20 RAC call again coming up with yet another updated estermated ... Yes you guessed it still the same 50 to 90 minutes .. when asked why it still same estermated time basically operator just said they had a lot of breakdowns in the area.. lady asks if they sending a recovery vehicle to collect car .. No RAC reply it will be a van they will diagnose and fix if they can if not call for a recovery vehicle.. After that call ended I suggested I look at car myself incase it a easy fix to save possible time .. Within but minutes I found that the cambelt had snapped hence not a side of the road fix.. Lady phones RAC back tells the operator .. Operator got a little confused but finally took message and said recovery truck should have there in @50 minutes .. Well that seemed a little better at least . It crossed my mind to break out the champagne ( luckily I had none so more iced orange squash was drunk) .. then out of the blue at 3.00pm RAC calls again to say recovery vehicle has been located and should be here by 5.00 pm ..( They were lucky this young lady had much better control of her temper than I have it seems I'd have flipped out several hours earlier ) But she did ask why they now saying found recovery vehicle be with us in 2 hours when basically 1 hour earlier one was on way and should be here in under a hour . Also basically what the RAC class as a important priority breakdown single defenceless young lady in secluded part of the country .. ( really not a great advert for the company is it ) .... Oddly enough as I said this call took place at 3 pm and they said ETA was now 2 hours so 5pm .. I suggested basically if she liked we could watch a DVD .. just made a fresh drink sat down comfy to watch as we now had theoretical set time ... Phone rings recovery truck 2 miles away and arrived in 5 minutes

Aa did the same to me a lone female country road, in the winter so dark around 6pm. Taken me 10 years to trust them again (cheapest quote). The only one whos been amazing is green flag

Zombie!!!!!!!!

Zombie thread (for the second time apparently...)

I wish MNHQ would sort the zombie threads out. They are everywhere now.

Yeah - they told me once that they would come but would charge me horrendously huge amounts of money(£100s) because they were so busy after heavy rain had caused localised flooding. I was in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain on a blind bend with kids in the car. They actually refused to come unless I gave them the money (about £400) up front (and yes I am a member) I was not impressed!!!

I used to work for a breakdown company and we had to prioritise Green Flag call outs over RAC and AA, our drivers had to respond within an hour for GF. There was another company as well that had an hour response time but I can't remember who it was now!

It's like Groundhog Day around here Euphemia.

AA did this to me. Lone woman 11.00pm at night on a secluded dark and rainy road. Operator said they couldn't come out unless I could provide a landmark - I was in the middle of nowhere. I asked them if they could track me using my phone and she said they couldn't do that. They knew exactly which road I was on but she was really unhelpful - told me to flag down a passing motorist

Change providers OP.

Just realised that this is a zombie thread. Wonder if they're still waiting at the side of the road?

I think it may be the case that the sub contractor gets a higher fee for after midnight working.

Zombie thread

Perhaps they are still waiting... a bunch of bones wistfully wishing they could head for home.

It was a Sunday chances are the call centre was not overstaffed and the contractor was probably called out from home.

Why do you believe having children with you is a route to making your call a priority?

Between DH and I we have used the AA 4 times in 5 years and everytime they have been brilliant. But like most things it probably comes down to service levels in each area. Perhaps the RAC in your area isn't as good so switching to the AA or Green Flag might be better.

Had the RAC out a few times over the years. They always came within the hour. Not spectacularly quickly but no dramas.

(Which reminds me I have no cover now!)

The issue is lack of communication. If they ring back and say, sorry, we're very busy and we can't get out to you for another couple of hours you could perhaps do something but if you think they're going to be there any minute it's trickier.

This. It's like with all services: most of us know that spanners can get in wheels but if you're told so - preferably BEFORE you're expecting the service to happen - at least you're not also dealing with oh, have they forgotten me, oh, do they not actually give a shit, and all that other stressful stuff. I'm at some of the stories on this thread from that point of view - how services can leave people hanging four or five hours with no info is beyond me.